Advancing the Use of Genomics in Breeding for Climate Resilient Crops in the Developing World

Increasing temperatures and changing patterns of precipitation due to climate change will affect the productivity of crops and livestock. Modelling studies indicate that climate change impacts on agriculture will disproportionately affect the poor who depend on agriculture for livelihoods and who have a lower capacity to adapt. The key staple cereals, on which most of the world’s poor depend, are particularly vulnerable to increasing temperatures. Unfortunately, farmers in developing countries are using old varieties that are no longer adapted to the current environment. It is estimated that the time from breeding to adoption of new maize varieties, for example, is about 30 years. Applications of genomics technologies and strategies/approaches/methods offer the promise of transforming breeding strategies to achieve accelerated development of high performing locally adapted varieties of staple food crops, particularly under stressful and resource-limited environments. Thus far, this potential has not been fully exploited in most public breeding programs, particularly those in the developing world. Resilience of crops and livestock to climate change is a cross-cutting theme in Feed the Future’s (https://www.feedthefuture.gov/) research investments. In this talk, I will highlight examples of Feed the Future projects that have successfully applied genomics to accelerate breeding of heat tolerant crops, and used innovative partnerships to enable the rapid dissemination of improved germplasm to seed companies and/or farmers. I will discuss lessons learned from these and other studies as considerations to promote the availability of locally adapted climate resilient crop varieties to farmers in the developing world.

Back to: Climate Change and ICRCGC 3

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